29 January 2025

The Greeks have a word for it:
49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

Anne Carson’s interpretation of ‘Elektra’ by Sophocles continues at the Duke of York’s theatre in the West End until 12 April

Patrick Comerford

A new West End production of Elektra, one of the great plays by Sophocles, opened at the Duke of York’s theatre, near Covent Garden, last Friday (24 January) and continues until 12 April. This is a new translation by the Canadian poet and classicist Anne Carson and had an earlier launch at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.

The new interpretation of Elektra is getting much attention because Elektra is played by Brie Larson, known for her roles in Captain Marvel, Room and Lessons in Chemistry, and because it is directed by Daniel Fish, whose production of Oklahoma! won a 2019 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical and went on to hit runs at the Young Vic and in the West End.

This is the first major revival in over a decade of Sophocles’ electrifying and timeless tragedy. Elektra (Electra, Ἠλέκτρα), is haunted by the murder of her father Agamemnon by her mother Clytemnestra and her new lover Aegisthus, Elektra is consumed by grief, a need for survival and a thirst for vengeance. She thinks her long-lost brother Orestes is dead. But when he returns, she urges him to kill them both her mother and her stepfather in a savage and terrifying conclusion.

This is only the fifth major London revival of Elektra in the past 75 years. Yet John Burgess has described Electra as being, along with The Cherry Orchard, ‘perhaps the most formally perfect play ever written’. Other describe Electra as ‘a female Hamlet’.

For both Shakespeare and Sophocles, royal fathers have been murdered to make way for intolerable marriages and both the Prince of Denmark and the Princess of Mycenae voice their lonely protest. Sophocles’ supreme irony comes when Clytemnestra and Electra’s compromising sister, Chrysothemis point out that the blood-cycle started with the slaughter of another daughter Iphigenia by Agamemnon in a sacrifice before the Trojan War.

Electra is one of the most enduring figures in classical tragedy. She is the leading character in both Electra by Sophocles and Electra by Euripides, and a vengeful figure in The Libation Bearers, the second play of the Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus. She is also the central figure in plays by Alfieri, Voltaire, Hofmannsthal and Eugene O’Neill.

In psychology, she gives her name to the Electra complex, analogous to a boy’s experience in the Oedipus complex, although the idea of the Electra complex is not widely used by mental health professionals today.

The Electra Palace Hotel (left) is an integral part of Ernest Hébrard’s design of Aristotelous Square in the heart of Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Electra remains a powerful figure in Greek culture today. Aristotelous Square is the main square in the heart of Thessaloniki, and like the White Tower it is virtually synonymous with the city itself. It is a venue for many cultural and political events, and is lined with hotels, cafés and bars.

The two quarter-circle sides of the square are occupied by two culturally important and imposing buildings: the Electra Palace Hotel, where I stayed once while I was travelling to and from Mount Athos, and the Olympion Theatre cinema, the venue of the annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival. There are also Electra Hotels in Athens, Rhodes and Kefalonia.

Walking around the harbour of Rethymnon, I have sometimes noticed a boat named Elektra. It brings to mind both the ought to mind both the plays by Sophocles and Euripides and the score Mikis Theodorakis wrote for the film Electra (1962). The film, starring Irene Papas, is based on the play by Euripides, was the first in a Greek tragedy trilogy by Michael Cacoyannis, followed by The Trojan Women (1971) and Iphigenia (1977).

In his music, Theodorakis expressed his political values and fused his idealism and his commitment to freedom. His scores for Zorba and Electra show how he caught Greek cultural imaginations, combining Greek traditional music and classical composition, high art and popular culture.

Elektra in Rethymnon … bringing together, Sophocles, Euripides and Theodorakis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Electra is an electrifying figure. Her name comes from the Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, amber), related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēléktōr, shining sun). The origin of the Greek word is unknown, but some think it might have come from a Phoenician word elēkrŏn, meaning ‘shining light’.

The word electricity, from Neo-Latin and ultimately Greek, first appears in English in Francis Bacon’s writings. But the first scientific usage of the English words electricity and electric is generally ascribed to Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646).

The words electricity and electric in English are derived from the New Latin ēlectricus (‘electrical’; ‘of amber’), and in turn from ēlectrum (‘amber’) and the adjectival -icus. The Latin term was apparently used first with the sense ‘electrical’ in 1600 by the English physician and scientist William Gilbert in his work De Magnete.

The word electron in English – a blend of electric + ion – was first coined in 1891 by the Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911). He changed the word multiple times from an earlier electrolion and original electrine, which he used as early as 1874, as the name for the electric charge associated with a univalent ion.

But the connection between electricity and Greek tragedy, and the alignment of the words we use with vengeful retribution and the savage and terrifying consequences for absolute despots, their families and those they rule are impossible for me tnot to make in these days.

I now associate electricity and electric cars with Elon Musk and his attitude to political violence as he props up Trump in America, whips up the far-right in Germany, seeks to intervene in the democratic process in Britain, France and many other countries and whips up crowds with fascist salutes. Musk chose two days before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz to address a rally of the far-right AfD in Germany, and to call for Germany to ‘move beyond’ Nazi guilt, saying ‘children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents.’

The electrifying and violent consequence of Musk’s actions are threatening to create dramatic tragedies throughout the democratic world, with savage and terrifying conclusions.

Last word: 48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

Next word: 50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

Electra and Orestes in ‘Stories from the Greek Tragedians’ by Alfred Church (1897)

Previous words in this series:

1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.

2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.

3, Bread, Ψωμί.

4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.

5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.

6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.

7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.

8,Theology, Θεολογία.

9, Icon, Εἰκών.

10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.

11, Chaos, Χάος.

12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.

13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.

14, Mañana, Αύριο.

15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.

16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.

17, The missing words.

18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.

19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.

20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.

21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.

22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.

23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.

24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.

25, Asthma, Ασθμα.

26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.

27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.

28, School, Σχολείο.

29, Muse, Μούσα.

30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.

31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.

32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.

33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.

34, Cinema, Κινημα.

35, autopsy and biopsy

36, Exodus, ἔξοδος

37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος

38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς

39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια

40, Practice, πρᾶξις

41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός

42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή

43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή

44, catastrophe, καταστροφή

45, democracy, δημοκρατία

46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end

47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse

48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha

49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric

50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις

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